'Powerful place to play': The verdicts are in on Paramount's Upfronts 2027

Paramount Australia held its 2027 Upfront last night.

After the presentation, Mediaweek spoke with agency leaders, media buyers, and marketers about the announcements that caught their attention, the opportunities for brands, and where they still want more detail.

READ MORE: Paramount’s 2027 pitch: wall-to-wall shows, 15 World Cup games and a path to purchase

Daniela_Rocchi - Sydney Head of Investment, Initiative

Walking into the MasterChef kitchen in Melbourne, you could be forgiven for thinking Paramount's Upfront would be all about its biggest entertainment franchises. While those brands certainly featured, the most telling signal came right at the start of the presentation, with streaming taking centre stage.

Paramount opened by reinforcing the growing role of Paramount+ within its ecosystem, positioning streaming not as a separate business but as a critical part of how audiences consume premium content today. It reflected an increasingly platform-agnostic viewing environment, with audiences moving seamlessly between broadcast and streaming.

Yet despite leading with streaming, the overarching story remained firmly cemented in content. In an Upfront season dominated by discussions around data, automation and measurement, Paramount's proposition was clear: premium content drives attention. From MasterChef and Survivor through to live sport and local productions, the network's strongest assets continue to be the franchises that audiences actively choose to engage with.

The MasterChef venue itself perfectly reflected that strategy. Paramount’s proposition doesn’t rely on technology alone; it puts some of Australia’s most enduring content brands at the centre of how it connects with audiences and advertisers. Sport also remains a critical part of the equation, providing the scale and live viewing moments that continue to hold immense value in an increasingly fragmented video market.

While Paramount is clearly investing in its streaming future, it understands that platforms alone don't create engagement – content does. And in a marketplace where attention is becoming harder to earn, backing premium franchises and passionate fan communities remains a powerful place to play.

Amy Dascanio - Mangaing Director Enigma Media

There was something fitting about Paramount hosting its Upfront in Melbourne’s MasterChef kitchen. The event felt intimate and personal, putting us inside one of its most recognisable programmes as it heads into its 19th season. It was a good reminder of the connection audiences build with familiar content and the value that holds for advertisers.

Consistency felt like a clear theme for Paramount, with familiar franchises providing the foundation and fresh talent giving audiences another reason to tune in. Australian Ninja Warrior returns with Robert Irwin, Georgie Tunny and Beau Ryan, while Junior MasterChef brings together Poh Ling Yeow and special guest Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

The Paramount+ slate added depth to that story. Melanie Lynskey leading Mushroom Murders, alongside Sam Kerr Kicking Goals and The Inspired Unemployed Sketch Show, demonstrates investment in Australian stories for different audiences. Internationally, Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning in Discretion, Anne Hathaway in Fear Not and Samuel L. Jackson in Frisco King bring considerable star power. The opportunity for advertisers is compelling, provided those names translate into sustained audience attention.

The Women’s World Cup is another clear drawcard. Sport still creates shared viewing moments that few other genres can, and the combination of football, local entertainment and international drama gives Paramount a strong foundation for advertiser partnerships.

From an agency perspective, the broader opportunity is how that content comes together across 10, 10 Streaming and Paramount+. Expanded sponsorships, integrations and interactive formats offer more ways for brands to participate in the programmes audiences care about.

Paramount didn’t overpromise on being number one. Consistency felt like the core theme, giving audiences a reason to tune in throughout the year. 

Only time will tell whether that strategy delivers. For me, 10’s strongest opportunity is to prove it can add audiences we’re not reaching through other media partners, particularly as incremental reach becomes harder to find.

Daniel Cutrone, Managing Partner, Media, Avenue C.

Paramount hosted a refreshing upfronts for 2027, focussing on all the right things that agencies want to hear and advertisers love.

A family friendly, genre specific 7:30pm franchisees - tick!

A flighting strategy that can coincide with advertisers marketing plans - tick!

A freshness to the programming strategy that can attract new audiences and keep them for longer - tick!

And a solution for almost every content vertical - tick!

Paramount+ content slate looked impressive enough to rival the biggest SVOD platforms, and there’s no doubt a property like “Mushroom Murders” will stop the nation. Marketing these properties is now critical to the success of the platform, ensuring that the Paramount advertising ecosystem can live up to its hype.

The elephant in the room was how HBO now fits into the broader mix, and will eventually add even greater weight to an already fierce content provider in Skydance.

Dan Hojnik, Head of Strategy and Planning, Involved Media

Coming at the tailend of Upfronts season Paramount didn't tell the market it was confident; it showed it. Hosting the Upfront in Melbourne, in the MasterChef kitchen with hors d'oeuvres and champagne put the market inside the content right off the bat - something that others didn't necessarily achieve in the same way. 

The Gogglebox couch got in on the act, selling integrations across 10's reality slate. It was well done in terms of putting content front and centre.

Today, a brand is what it does, not what it says. Integrations let brands go deeper than a spot ever could. Spots and dots tell people about a brand; integrations let the brand show up and do something inside the content people already love. 

Paramount now has the tools across 10, 10 Streaming and Paramount+: sponsorship within specific Paramount+ titles, Streaming Fixed Units from early 2027, and partnerships like Bunnings' The Great Aussie Christmas.

If Paramount builds more propositions around integration, brands will value deeper content partnerships well beyond a 30-second spot.

I also liked how local content stood next to Hollywood, not behind it. Early on, the split was clear: Paramount+ brought the drama, 10 brought the local reality, sport included. Local titles like Who The Hell Is Hamish? and Mushroom Murders held their own. They felt like part of the slate, not a token Australian add-on. The 10 slate is overwhelmingly local, and local content is what builds audiences here. Brands need to know that continues.

One of the themes of the 2027 Upfronts season has been making transacting easier and Paramount Connect gives one entry point, a single customer view and frequency management across linear, BVOD and SVOD.

Managing frequency across all three means less duplicated reach and more incremental reach, which is where budgets work hardest. Paramount is seeking taking friction out of buying. The question is whether formats like Pause To Shop add it back into watching. To my mind I worry that asking people to shop mid-show feels like friction nobody asked for.

Pause To Shop is definitely the right instinct (the brand doing something in the content); the question is really about the shopping mechanic and how seamless they can make it. It's definitely interesting innovation, but I wonder whether we're asking too much of people to shop while they're being entertained.

Jay Malig, National Trading Lead, Atomic 212°

Paramount has shared a bunch of new advertising innovations across measurement, contextual placements, e-commerce and inventory.

It’s rolling out a market-first, single-campaign view that brings attention, brand lift, site visits and sales together across streaming and linear. In 2027, Samba will add linear TV through ad exposure matching. Last-touch attribution has traditionally given social and performance channels more of the credit, so this fuller view should help level the playing field for premium video. It gives buyers a clearer picture of what’s actually working and more opportunity to optimise along the way.

The Game Day Highlighter is a CTV-first experience using MomentAI to put advertisers right in the middle of the biggest sporting moments. It’s launching during the FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027 on Paramount+ and Network 10. 

Live sport is when fans are really tuned in, but traditional ad breaks can sometimes miss those standout moments. This gives advertisers a chance to show up around the goals, finishes and highlights, when fans are most engaged and more likely to remember them.

In what they claim is Australia’s first purpose-built shoppable TV show, Paramount and Bunnings are teaming up for The Great Aussie Christmas, presented by Bunnings Warehouse and premiering 1 November. 

Using pause To shop technology, viewers can check out what’s on screen and buy featured Bunnings products straight from their connected TV. It’s a great example of streaming moving beyond inspiration and making it easier to shop in the moment, creating a much smoother journey from a great story to a purchase.

Paramount is also bringing Pause, High Impact and Interactive ads to Paramount+, with Streaming Fixed Units coming in early 2027. That gives sponsors more standout opportunities across premium local and global hits. 

For advertisers, it’s a clear and highly visible way to show up in major titles and connect with engaged subscribers while they’re watching the content they love.